How the Church became anti-Semitic

The first Judaizers were Christian Jews who were able to convince some Gentile Christians to convert to Judaism. This is who Paul contended with, especially in his letter to the Galatians.

It’s fair to say Paul and the Jerusalem Council were “mild” Judaizers, who said in addition to believing in Jesus, Gentile believers should “abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality”; however, neither Paul nor the Council believed Gentiles should convert to Judaism.

Nevertheless, in spite of Paul’s teachings and the ruling of the Jerusalem Council, some Jewish Christians were still split over the issue of whether or not Gentile Christians just needed to be baptized, or if they needed to be circumcised and follow some or all of the Law of Moses. Perhaps some Jewish Christians blamed Paul’s teaching and the fact that most Gentile Christians had not converted to Judaism as the reason Christ had not yet returned.

But most Gentile Christians in the first century wanted nothing to do with circumcision or the heavy yoke of the Law, so like Paul, they had nothing kind to say about Judaizers, and the word “Judaizer” became a very pejorative term.

By the 2nd century, the charge of “Judaizer” was being leveled against Gentile Christians by other Gentile Christians simply for encouraging regular prayers and fasting since these seemed Jewish. So to avoid being labeled a “Judaizer,” Gentile Christian leaders became vocally anti all things Jewish. Had Paul still been alive, this development would have grieved him immensely!
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Related Posts:
From Jew to Gentile
How Christianity Split from Judaism